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Show I Civic Weakness That Too Many Absorb Political j Ideas From Ignorance Ey DR. AKNOLD BENNETT HALL, President University of Oregon. MOST of us get our political convictions out of our own ignorance. igno-rance. And the utilization of unsound political convictions is one of the methods employed by the demagogue. Tho largi-r part of the p;iblic has as mrny political convictions as a dog has fleas and where they are picked up nobody knows. Unsound j convictions are developed by the process of suggestion, by reiteration. If we see anything often enough we believe it. The tyranny of an established estab-lished phrase is another factor forwarding the demagogue's progress. Streamer headlines in newspapers often are the only information persons j have concerning a political situation. Frequently they don't know what the words or phrases rnan, but they use them freely because they are on every tongue. Audiences, listening to a dynamic, clever "demagogue," j will allow their whole thinking to be controlled by one thought, some-j some-j body else's thought that they think is their own. I Tho solution for the present evils of the political situation lies in i I the process of education. Civic training in the school should be taught I along the same lines as football, by daily active practice, not by study- j ing, reading and listening to lectures, on the history and workings of the government. Only through intelligent thinking ,can demagogues be dethroned and shorn of their power. i |